On the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë's birth, Penguin is publishing the definitive biography of this extraordinary novelist, by acclaimed literary biographer Claire Harman.
This beautifully-produced, landmark biography is essential reading for every fan of the Brontë family's writing, from Jane Eyre to Wuthering Heights. It is a uniquely intimate and complex insight into one of Britain's best loved writers. penguin.co.uk
I am a little bit surprised. A definite biography?
It is a nice idea to publish a new biography on the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë's birth, but "" definitive biography ""? After the excellent biographies of Juliet Barker and Rebecca Fraser? Is it possible to write better biographies then these? I wonder, is there something new in this biography we didn't hear of?
New to me is what I am reading in an article of Claire Harman in the telegraph.co.uk:
One Friday afternoon, 11 days before the end of term, Heger came into the classroom where Charlotte was teaching and handed her a small object wrapped carefully in a piece of thin writing paper. She opened it as soon as he left. Inside the zigzag wrapping was a small piece of pale wood, too thin to be anything other than crating. It was a piece of Napoleon’s coffin, or, rather, since Napoleon was famously coffined in tin within mahogany within lead, possibly a piece of the outer casings in which the great man’s remains had been brought back to France three years earlier, under the command of his son, the Prince de Joinville, whose former secretary, Joachim-Joseph Lebel, was Heger’s friend and principal of the Athénée. Out of the fog of disregard, Heger had reached out to her with his most personal and thoughtful gift yet, a relic at once to be revered for its connections and regarded with a touch of pleasant mutual cynicism, a continuation of their conversation about the emperor and his British nemesis, and a reminder of her triumphant essay on the subject; a small gift which could be slipped into her hand without fuss, which Madame Heger would never notice, and which, above all, was a token of her abiding place in his thoughts. While the girls were still busy, Charlotte wrote on the spread-out wrapper the exact coordinates of place and time of this precious new possession: “August 4th 1843 – Brussels – Belgium/ 1 o’clock pm/ Monsieur Heger has just been into the 1st Class/ and given me this relic – he bought it from/ his intimate friend M. Lebel.”
On the website of the Bronte Parsonage Museum I find this information
| Object number | BS20a |
| Title | fragment from one of Naoleon's coffins |
| Description | small strip of wood that formed part of one of Napoleon's coffins; inscribed in ink in French; fair; complete; 106mm l x 21mm w x0.5 mm d; |
| Material | wood, ink |
| Dimensions |
|
From the Treasure Trove: Napoleon's coffin.
The Brontes had been fascinated by both Wellington and Napoleon. On 4th August 1843, Charlotte's tutor M. Heger presented her with this fragment from Napoleon's coffin. Here, it is pictured with a note written by Charlotte, authenticating the item.
August 4th 1843 - Brussels - Belgium
1 o'clock pm...
Monsieur Heger has just been into the 1st class and given me this relic - he bought it from his intimate friend Mr Lebel.
C Bronte
Mr Lebel was the Secretary of the prince Achille Murat - The Prince de Joinville son of Louis Philippe brought over the remains of Bonaparte from St Helena.
The Brontes had been fascinated by both Wellington and Napoleon. On 4th August 1843, Charlotte's tutor M. Heger presented her with this fragment from Napoleon's coffin. Here, it is pictured with a note written by Charlotte, authenticating the item.
August 4th 1843 - Brussels - Belgium
1 o'clock pm...
Monsieur Heger has just been into the 1st class and given me this relic - he bought it from his intimate friend Mr Lebel.
C Bronte
Mr Lebel was the Secretary of the prince Achille Murat - The Prince de Joinville son of Louis Philippe brought over the remains of Bonaparte from St Helena.
I am going to search on the internet. Can I find more descriptions about this present Mr Heger has given to Charlotte Bronte? Because it seems very romantic the way it is written here. But as I always understood the romance came from one site, the site of Charlotte.
- So I am curious why Mr. Heger gave Charlotte this present
- Did Mr. Heger had reached out to her with his most personal and thoughtful gift yet, a relic at once to be revered for its connections and regarded with a touch of pleasant mutual cynicism, a continuation of their conversation about the emperor and his British nemesis, and a reminder of her triumphant essay on the subject; a small gift which could be slipped into her hand without fuss, which Madame Heger would never notice, and which, above all, was a token of her abiding place in his thoughts.
Indeed. M.Heger was kind and thoughtful to his students. He liked doing battle in class and then making amends with gifts and tokens . The giving of a piece of a coffin ( no matter whose) doesn't sound romantic to me. Undoubtedly he and Charlotte had a lively classroom exchange about Napoleon and Wellington. This seems on Heger's part a friendly gesture and comment on that exchange.
BeantwoordenVerwijderen"a small gift which could be slipped into her hand without fuss, which Madame Heger would never notice, and which, above all, was a token of her abiding place in his thoughts."...
This sounds more like a novel than a history book to me because the author is interjecting emotions into the event she can't know, only guess at. What I admired about Harman's earlier works was she didn't try to come to hard conclusions without fact. But she seems to be moving away from that here. I looked up the word " definitive"
it means conclusive, final, ultimate
No one book, no one author's vision could hope to do that when it comes to Bronte imo. Of course it is going to be good, Harman. is a fine writer...but don't tell me I need read or look no further than her one book.